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Upton, Whitfield on EPA Boiler and Incinerator Rules - "Let's Take the Time to Get This Done Right to Protect Public Health and Jobs"

February 23, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC - House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY) today reiterated concerns about efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize boiler and incinerator rules despite the agency's own acknowledgement of a flawed rulemaking process and product. In mid-January, a federal district court denied the EPA's request for a 15-month extension on the final emissions standards for boilers and incinerators - rules that will affect thousands of manufacturing and industrial facilities, small businesses, educational institutions, hospitals, and local agencies. Upton and Whitfield continue to believe the new rules have the potential to impose significant economic harm and underscore the dangers of the agency's flawed regulatory tactics.

Reps. Upton and Whitfield issued the following statement:

"How can anyone have confidence in rules that the EPA was admittedly unprepared to issue just weeks ago? However, we are not the only ones lacking confidence. It is extraordinary that EPA itself announced that it will be filing for reconsideration of the rules on the very same day they were released. This is not how the rulemaking process is supposed to work. If the rules needs to be reconsidered, then let's take the time to get this done right to protect public health and jobs.

"At a time when we are enduring 21 consecutive months of 9 percent or higher unemployment, we cannot afford to rush sweeping regulations that have the potential to do more harm than good. For example, the proposed rules were estimated to put more than 300,000 jobs at risk. "The EPA was operating under court order to meet this week's deadline, but we continue to believe sound policymaking should trump arbitrary timelines. If congressional intervention is needed to provide EPA the time it needs to provide careful, defensible rules that will not invite additional judicial challenge, the Committee on Energy and Commerce is prepared to act. The American public deserves a thoughtful, deliberative ruling that it can have faith in."